Wonderboy ducking The Silent Assassin

hardcoreBE

hardcoreBE

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Despite a recent callout by Vicente Luque, “Wonderboy” said he’s much more interested in a bout against former lightweight champion dos Anjos. His desire stems from dos Anjos’ proximity to him in the rankings.

“I know me and ‘RDA’ are coming off of a loss,” Thompson said. “That was kind of thrown out there, and hopefully that will work. It’s kind of up in the air, but I’d love for it to happen at Madison Square Garden. … I want to get back up in that top five again, so that’s why the ‘RDA’ fight is so appealing to me.”

“… I don’t know if Vicente Luque is ranked yet. I think he’s in the top 14 or 15 or something like that, so it wasn’t that appealing to me. But if the ‘RDA’ thing doesn’t happen, that’s definitely a possibility. He’s a great fighter.”
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First of all I'm not saying RDA shouldn't be ahead of Luque in the ranking. But it's ridiculous Luque is only ranked at 14. Although not all of his opponents are huge names, he's on a 6 fight winstreak in a difficult division, 10-2 overall in the UFC with 9 of those wins coming by finish.

RDA is 1-3 in his last 4 fights. Wonderboy is 1-3-1 in his last 5 fights. So from my perspective Wonderboy should be happy with the opportunity to fight someone with Luques record no?

With Wonderboy saying Luque's ranking isn't very appealing to him I think he meant 'the prospect of getting KTFO again doesn't sound so appealing to me'.

So, is Wonderboy ducking Luque? Would he rather face a former LW eventhough he's a big WW himself?

Edit; Sauce
 
Wonderboys time is running up. Soon 37 he shouldve done the job 3 years ago and he got another shot. Hes too old now
 
andy9432 said:
Wonderboys time is running up. Soon 37 he shouldve done the job 3 years ago and he got another shot. Hes too old now
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I think he still has some things to offer but he'll never become a champ (not in the UFC at least).
 
I'm with him.
I know a lot of fans want a prospect to hav a 'signature win' under his belt before entering the title picture but this sometimes backfires and we get the same old faces bobbing in and out of the title frame.

Let Wonderboy fight RDA. Both have had their time in the sun.

Luque can fight someone else on the rise like Geoff Neal, Jingliang Li, even someone like Ponzinibbio actually. At least those fights will produce a fresh face in the title picture.
 
#9 fighting #14. All risk, no reward for Thompson. I don't blame him for ducking a fighter ranked that low.
 
Is there anyone above Vicente Luque in the UFC's WW rankings that he beats?
The fight with Perry was fun but it was just Mike Perry.
Get him to fight Magny so you've got 14 vs 15.
 
You guys kill everything, "duck" has become a meaningless word.
 
Fergelmince said:
#9 fighting #14. All risk, no reward for Thompson. I don't blame him for ducking a fighter ranked that low.
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My point is that Luque being ranked at 14 is ridiculous. He should be in the top 10. And look beyond the number in front of their name. Wonderboy is 1-3 in his last 4. Luque is on a 6 fight winstreak with 5 finishes. In terms of excitement, Wonderboy has only finished 5 opponents during his 14 fights in the UFC.

I just feel like with the streak Wonderboy is on he shouldn't just look at the rankings and saying the fight isn't appealing to him because of that. The fight isn't appealing because he know's he would probably lose it.

@The_Renaissance I don't think you can call a fighter who's 10-2 in the UFC a prospect anymore.
 
Individualthoughtpatterns said:
Yeah no shit Wonderboy has a few more losses. He has fought much, much tougher competition. World champions.
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Yes I know that. Because they also give him the chance to fight these opponents. I feel like they want to have Luque fight guys that aren't even top 15 for the rest of his career.

They've slowly build him up, which is great. But now it's really time for a top 10 opponent for him.
 
hardcoreBE said:
My point is that Luque being ranked at 14 is ridiculous. He should be in the top 10. And look beyond the number in front of their name. Wonderboy is 1-3 in his last 4. Luque is on a 6 fight winstreak with 5 finishes. In terms of excitement, Wonderboy has only finished 5 opponents during his 14 fights in the UFC.

I just feel like with the streak Wonderboy is on he shouldn't just look at the rankings and saying the fight isn't appealing to him because of that. The fight isn't appealing because he know's he would probably lose it.

@The_Renaissance I don't think you can call a fighter who's 10-2 in the UFC a prospect anymore.
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Yeah, but the UFC, the press and the fans don't give the smallest of shits about YOUR ranking.
 
Not ducking at all. Wonderboy is pretty old, he needs to position himself to gain one last title shot before his window closes if it hasn't already. If he loses a fight with Luque, that could be the end of his title run. Seems pretty obvious why he wouldn't want to fight him.
 
Risk vs Reward. Who cares what the rankings are, if the casuals have not heard of your opponent, and he is dangerous, and you are relatively well-known to casuals, it makes no business sense to take the fight.

Duck implies fear so I guess it fits.

If you are likely to take damage in nearly any fight, do you want fights that will increase your public image and therefore draw and money or do you just take all comers and get ushered out of your career from damage from fighting no names?

When does the word "Duck" become not "afraid of losing" but instead "afraid of taking damage for little reward?"
 
High risk little reward...he learn that from fighting Pettis...I agree with him...Wonderboy Ponzi would be ideal if Dos Anjos won't happen...
 
Beating someone with a good record stops mattering once you get to the UFC, hell most don’t bother taking hard fights beforehand. If they want to play the rankings game it’s fine but they’ll still get passed up by a “big name”
 
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